Deimos

This post is for information to Skype users who may be having problems with either quiet sound (i.e. when they speak they are quiet to the other person) or sometimes a long delayed echo (which is actually caused by quite excessive mic volume which is “volume limited” at the other end so is not heard as being too loud). Skype has a number of “special features” the developers have put in which can on some configurations work against you and have very bad effects. Skype can automatically decide to adjust the microphone volume despite who you set it on the Windoze sound settings. If you (or the person you are speaking to) suffer either volume too quiet (i.e. mic sensitivity too low) or a long delayed echo then I would recommend the following: a. On the Skype options, under the headset/headphones tab, disable the checkbox that allows Skype to automatically adjust the sound device settings (i.e. you don’t want Skype to do this). b. More complex is: Exit from Skype (completely (no icon in the task bar) and find the Skype CONFIG.XML file (normally under C:\Documents and Settings\\Application Data\. You must have exited from Skype before making changes and may want to take a backup copy of the file first. Also, in the section below [ is actually the open angled bracket/less than sign and ] is actually the close angle bracket/greater than sign. This forum seems to remove things in greater than/less than signs.Edit this with Windoze notepad (or anything and find the bit (probably near the top the has a line [call]) e.g. [config version="1.0" serial="5083" timestamp="1110313537.56"] [Lib] [Call] [AEC]0[/AEC] [AGC]0[/AGC] [IncomingPolicy]authorized[/IncomingPolicy] [MicVolume]255[/MicVolume] The two lines [AEC]0[/AEC] And [AGC]0[/AGC] may be missing or set to 1. If missing, add then or if present set them to 0. Also, the 255 is the mic volume Skype wants to use (i.e. the volume it will set the mic to when making a call. 255 is max volume, 0 is silent. You may want to try different adjustments. You also need to do the same further down the file under a section called [General] e.g. [General] [AEC]0[/AEC] [AGC]0[/AGC] [AdvancedFaF]0[/AdvancedFaF] (there is only one [general] in the file). Now save the file and re-run Skype. This should only be done if you have the problems (if it is not broke don’t fix it) and not as some people think as a “maybe it might make a good thing better”. What happens is that Skype monitors the sound settings and if it feels they are not optimal will change them (despite what you might set in the Skype Options dialog. Sometimes you can see this on the Windoze volume control (e.g. set mic volume quite, speak and over about 30 secs Skype will adjust the sensitivity – you can see the slider move). However, on some sound cards Skype does not get it right which causes the problems. The above stops Skype from messing about like this. Make sure you take a backup, etc. and it is quite a fiddle so be sure you are happy. Getting it wrong can mess-up your Skype and require a re-install (I messed up mine one time). All at your own risk but many with problems have found the above solves those problems

Are you looking for recommendations or just as many as you can find. You can try Pages Jaune which will give you loads and includes links to there web sites (where available). http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?

I believe such things exist and are available from a vet (at least they are for dogs). I’ve never seen such things in pet shops nor the like so assume vet only. You may want to ask you vet about “morning after” pills as well (as I guess you probably don’t know who is visiting when ?

I also live in 72 (southern part) and my Sky mini-dish works fine (in fact I have better signal strength & signal quality that I did in the UK). I don’t have any problems in bad weather (extreme thunder storms perhaps but just once or twice in the last year). Assuming you are subscribed to Sky (with a Sky card, etc.), a few points. Your contract with Sky and Sky’s transmitting license means that they cannot transmit other than to UK geographic areas. Fine, their signal covers Europe but if they know you no longer live in the UK then they will immediately(‘ish) kill off your card. You need to have a UK address for them to send post, cards, etc. to (so they think you have just moved within the UK). Careful if you ever telephone them as well. If your Sky contract (still) requires your Sky box to be plugged into the telephone line at all times then this can be a problem (as it wont be plugged in in France and people say Sky notice its not plugged-in). I never had this on my Sky box (as I purchased it myself at fullish price and was not subsidised by Sky). I understand that these “must be plugged-in” terms tend to last a year after which it is not a requirement (others might know more). Installing your Sky dish in France is a pretty straightforward DIY job and you can find info re alignment on this forum or http://www.brymar.co.uk/info/info.html. Took me less than a few hours (probably quicker if I had had assistance or maybe I was lucky and happened to get the alignment quickly). Brico’s sell additional dish cable, plugs, etc if you need them. Hope this helps Ian

With regard to the French “Non” vote I can only recount what I was told at a dinner party I was invited to the day after the vote (me being the only Brit there). I tried to avoid politics (as advised) but the previous day meant that nobody else wanted to. My understanding is that there were several reasons for the “Non”. These include: 1. A protest about the domestic situation (economy, unemployment, etc.) 2. A feeling the a European International Policy would be great until e.g. the UK decided to ignore it (as per the UN) and go off on its own course. 3. Feeling uncomfortable with the economic state of some of the new countries joining. There were people present who had voted Yes and voted No (and one who votes Yes and meant No). However, one thing I was told was that it was not a vote against Europe by France and people were actually a bit worried that other countries might interpret it as such. (These are not my opinions as I don’t understand French politics enough to have opinions on the subject, just those expressed to me by a few French people at a dinner party). Regards Ian

What amazes me is that they all go in the same night. Not a “seem to be losing some” literally loads one evening and none the next night. Also, I have not noticed loads on stones on the ground, nor bird poo. The weight of cherries taken must be pretty high. Must be a spectacle like Hitchcock’s “The Birds” ? (or whatever the film was called). Many thanks Ian

I can see the autoroutes one working but I would have thought local papers and local radio would not be adequate to stop and fine/points somebody for speeding. I guess it depends on the nature of “air pollution” as to the gendarmes having a couple of days notice. However, as far as I understand it there is no legal requirement to have nor to listen to a radio in the car nor to read the local papers. I could see one being stopped and given a “tough time” but no fine/points. However, I have no experience of “air pollution” nor how obvious it is to a driver. The “reduced speed limits in bad weather” seems to work OK and I guess that if it is a obvious as the “poor weather” then maybe it would not be an issue (but then they would not need ads in local papers, etc.). Useful to know. Many thanks for the info. Ian

I have several cherry trees and each fruits at slightly different times. I can also tell exactly when the fruit is ripe as, one day you can see a tree full of cherries and, when they are ripe, next morning they have all (literally every one) gone. It really is that sudden, virtually all there one evening (a few on the ground) and none there the next morning. I’ve not yet found any bloated animals sleeping off an excessive meal under any trees and wondered what has that type of appetite ? Any ideas ? (Dept 72/37) Thanks Ian

There is always the Classic Le Mans (or Le Mans Story) in early Sept ?. They also do a great "race" March or April where they get the really old cars out of the museum (into the city) and give them each 1L of fuel (or might be 2L - not sure) and its a distance race to see who can get furthest on the "course". I think it’s a really good idea for an event (though probably does not justify travelling any great distance for). Ian

Firstly, I’m not an expert to take stuff I write is comment and my (limited) experience rather than fact. I have been seeking environmentally friendly energy use in my old watermill for a year and a half and have to date made little actual progress. I first investigated micro-hydro (which seemed a sensible plan). However, the 4.5 Kw potential was fine except that a suitable turbine would have to be sourced from Canada and all European models were not appropriate for volumes/drop, etc. which would be expensive and difficult (maintenance, etc.) I then got an architect expert in environmentally friendly energy round and got some helpful, some less helpful advice. Many people say that solar (Loir region) is no good as not enough sun, etc. whereas others say fine. Heating, with a wood burning boiler seemed a good plan but seems there are only 5 in the department and the estimated cost of a boiler was €15000 to €21000. Anyway, I guess from your perspective one aspect would be how you would store the energy and the impact on your life should you “run short” (e.g. no wind and little sun for a week plus, etc.). Cost of running a generator could be quite high (also the generator itself might be expensive in relation to the cost of EDF for a half mile run). One thing in France is that if you “over generate” your own electricity, EDF are obliged to buy it off you i.e. you take from the EDF when you need more than you generate and supply to EDF when you have surplus. EDF apparently don’t pay very much for your power (but it all helps – both environmentally and financially). One web site that might help is http://www.ademe.fr/ (who seem to be a bit like the UK environment agency. Their web site does have some English language parts. They seem to have quite a lot about environmentally friendly energy use and generation. They also deal with the subsidies available for such things (the subsidies are documented on their web site, together will ballpark costs, etc.). they are organised in regional offices and certainly when I have called my local one they are very friendly and helpful. They put me in contact with the departmental expert for micro-hydro who offered to visit, etc. (all for free). Not a lot of help (in so much text) – sorry. Regards Ian

Just in case you had forgotten, it’s the Le Mans 24 hrs this 18/19 June.

It is something I have noticed (not on LF but on other sites). People say e.g. “You are a right b*****d and ” then put a smiley face and its like the smiley face is expected to negate the insults. To me this makes little sense. I can see that they can help emphasis what is meant on occasions but they are used by some for other reasons. As for the animated ones – amusing but again I’ve seen posts which are nothing but the same animated thing repeated again and again and again – no text, just the same animated thing repeated. Maybe I’m old fashioned or plain out of date but I have difficulty understanding what such a post is about. What is the author saying in such a post. Ian

Sorry I cannot advise as I have very little experience with OE6 (I actually use Outlook). Being “unfairly negative” to Windoze, I have found that once something is broken it can be virtually impossible to fix sometimes. My IE6 is broken (after a Windoze update) and nothing I do will fix it – so I’ve given-up. I don’t know how much you love OE6, but one alternative that many people like is Thunderbird (from the Mozilla group). It’s a free download no spy/ad/any ware stuff like that (no online adds, nothing), meant to be secure, I believe it can import everything from OE6 (i.e. you should not have to start again with everything, etc. Mozilla stuff is fairly mainstream these days (http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/) I was going to use it but I find I use the calendar, and Todo lists in Outlook which neither Thunderbird nor OE6 do. Sorry I cannot be more help. Regards Ian

When it happens, is it just all e-mails in a download or does on e-mail in a download start it of and the rest in that download are bad. After a “bad download”, does the next download run OK. I’m afraid I don’t know the answer but one thought (if it happened moderately frequently) is that I believe with OE6 you can configure it to leave the messages on the mail server. Maybe enable that (i.e. leave the mail messages on the server after each download). After each download you will have to e.g. webmail to delete the messages but, when it goes wrong you can e.g. webmail and see if the messages are bad on the server or just in OE6 and also where the problems start and if there is anything weird about the last good/first bad mail message. If this works, maybe just delete the last good message and download again (see if it was that message). Then delete 1st bad message and download again, etc. Just a thought that might give some pointers as to where the problems lie. Hope this helps and that the suggestions are not all impractical. Regards Ian

Am I right in thinking that you should be able to put a divert on your French Wanadoo account to divert all incoming mail to e.g. your UK Wanadoo account (thus meaning you only have to keep one account open). On the assumption that you can and on the assumption that when you stop paying wanadoo.fr then your wanadoo.fr mailbox will also disappear: I guess at some point you will want to stop paying for both UK and French Wanadoo subscriptions so I would think that the sooner you get everybody over to you UK Wanadoo address the better. Maybe make sure you only send from @wanadoo.co.uk rather than @wanadoo.fr (so people replying always go direct. Also, depending on your e-mail client, display who the mail is addressed TO – which should show you if it’s a @wanadoo.fr or @wanadoo.co.uk and thus if it’s a @wanadoo.fr you can e-mail back about your mail address changing. Also, if I’ve mis-interpreted the question then just ignore me and pretend I’m not here. Regards Ian

Tricky one so bear with my response. I can only detail what I did (again with Wanadoo and their software). Firstly I hate their software. When I used to use dial-up modem, it use to lock-up my machine every day or so (such that it would not even shut down). When I created a standard dial-up connection it all worked fine non problems. Thus when I got their ADSL I did not want to use their software so: I did install it to get the modem drivers (in my case a Thompson Speedtouch 510 Ethernet modem). Got it all working, then set-up a standard dial-up connection using Windoze (to the “Broadband device”). Got that working and then killed off all the Wanadoo software. I had to hunt around for quite a lot of it (e.g. in the start-up programs in the registry, etc.) but got there. This was stopping them running and not un-installing (as uninstalling would remove the drivers, DLL’s, etc.) There were quite a few programs to kill off and how you do it depends on what other software you have and your confidence/IT capabilities. I tend to use a Spyware system as it gives you nice lists (e.g. Windoze anti-spyware or WinPatrol, but I’m sure there are loads). I had to search out start-up-groups in the start menu and anywhere the stuff could start-up. Also, I did not delete the “Wanadoo” connection in the “Connect To” list as I was unsure about it. I just created a new one and never with a different name and use that (never touching the Wanadoo one). This is a fine way to do things as I actually talked to Wanadoo support after it all and they “talked me through doing it” (again) – so some of them are OK about it. The connection you set-up is pretty straight forward – I don’t remember having any great problems. I then connect to the internet manually and have the connection set to automatically reconnect should the line drop. Occasionally I have to manually reconnect. I had a long talk to Thompson Speedtouch the other day as I broke my modem by upgrading the firmware with UK firmware. I asked them how I could use it as a true router rather than a “dial-up” connection and they said that such a technique was not approved for domestic use in France. I’m sure others may have achieved it but the said the approved protocols are PPPoA 0/35 and you need the “dial-up” connection (which is why my modem with the UK firmware would not even get ADSL sync. I am not an expert, just trying to remember what I did. I use Outlook, though do collect mail from Wanadoo so unsure about any issues there (though there should not be any). I do use Skype (PC to PC between UK/France/Aus) and SkypeOut (UK/France/Aus) no problems so Wanadoo accepts that fine. I’m sure there are loads of other ways of doing the same. You are far from the 1st person to want to kill L’Espace Wanadoo. If the above does not help, do post back. Regards Ian

[quote]This was only a little cat, no rabies jabs or passport either. The frontline was an extra 27 euros. We are obviously living in the wrong region. And all this was nothing in comparison to the rec...[/quote] Was that a single Frontline treatment (spot-on) or a pack of 3/6 pipettes. I only ask as round me you can purchase the packs at reasonable prices in some Bricos, larger garden centres, etc. If I buy a pack of 3 pipettes on Frontline Combo (top of the rage stuff only bause it protects your home from fleas) from my vet (again the most expensive place) I get a pack for €32. However, standard Frontline in 6 pack from http://www.zubialcompany.com/zoobial/zeshop/frontline.html virtually halves the cost.

Try Pages Jaune (http://www.pagesjaunes.fr/pj.cgi?). There should be quite a few companies around. Are you sure it’s live rather than old holes ? I’m no expert but I understand that a give away sign is the powdered wood under the beams (normally in lines or at least directly under the beams). Sorry I cannot be more help than that. Regards Ian

One of my dogs (15Kg – medium size, if that makes a difference) had the complete set last month (including Rabies and a Pet Passport) at a total cost of €48.

Certainly the SCC don’t move too quickly for registration changes. When pups are born papers seem very quick. However, my French pup’s registration (after purchasing her) took over 9 months to come through – and that was without any of the complications you describe. Fortunately I had been warned that it would take 7 months. Glad to hear you have it all sorted out now. Ian

[quote]We applied to extend our balcony and had that turned down as it took us over the m² habitable for the amount of land we have. We then put in reduced plans and they were accepted and were told that tha...[/quote] The rules (as others have explained to me) would seem to suggest I should apply. However, the local opinion (including professionals) is that there is no need as I’m not changing the external appearance. One of the architects did say that there is a lot of variation in how the rules are interpreted across France (not the rules but the interpretation). I agree as it confuses me as well (and worries me a bit for my attic "non-conversion"). Regards Ian

[quote]Why don't you need permission to convert your loft? We were told we had to apply, but we wouldn't get permission anyway. I understand nothing.[/quote] Actually me neither. Existing floor area is already more than 170 m sq. and attic is more than 20 sq m. Got an architect round to draw the plans and he said no need. Just in case, got another round who also said no need. They did say that to ask for permission when you don't need it can complicate things as regulations can be interpreted so many ways. At a recent dinner party (French people and me) it came up and they all said "no need for Permis nor Declaration". I can only assume the architects thought that as it already has flooring (wood floor boards), windows and a sort of staircase going there that they classed it as a room already (though no plasterboard, tiles, rafters, etc. all fully exposed. I do want to put in some Velux windows as well for which I will need a "Declaration". I was still unsure and thought I might raise it with one Mairie (my house sits across the border of two communes). why were you told you would not get permission and who buy. I'm afraid I'm no expert so cannot contradict what they said. I have heard that there is a maximum floor area for a house based on land area the house is on. Is that a limit for you ? Regards Ian

I have once had a cyclist ride past and point “boldly” at his watch whilst I was mowing the lawn between 12: 10and 14:00. However, as I’m over half a Km from the neighbours (who don’t ride bikes) I did what I thought most French would do – ignored him. Ian

I had an architect round to advise on my attic conversion (that I don’t need plans for – just wanted some professional advice). Not disagreeing (and I have no knowledge) but repeating what he said re room height in this department (72): For a principle room more that 9 cubic meters then min ceiling height is 2.3m but recommended is 2.5m. For non principal rooms (e.g. bathrooms, etc.) no regs. Regards Ian

Don’t know your area but if no luck there, try checking on www.kiloutou.fr. they hire them out and are quite widespread through France (I hired them there several times, including edge sanders, etc.). I don’t think they are the cheapest in the world but I liked the way the do a day as a 24 hr period (e.g. collect at e.g. 15:30 and get it back by 16:00 for the day – or multiples, etc.) Ian